Tag: habits

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“Reboot” and “Refresh” Habits

“Rest when you’re weary. Refresh and renew yourself, your body, your mind, your spirit. Then get back to work.” – Ralph Marston

What do we do when we are tired? I am sure most of us have experienced this before. This has triggered me to share some good habits with you. Feel free to practice them and let me know how it goes.

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“Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.” – Leonardo da Vinci

 

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Here are some of the good habits:

  1. “Solvitur ambulando” is a Latin phrase which means “it is solved by walking”. When we feel tired, it could be due to a few factors; we are bored, ran out of ideas or could be lack of oxygen. By breaking what we are doing at that moment to go for a walk, we can reboot, refresh and re-energize. One of the brilliant articles to read: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hemingway-thoreau-jeffers_b_3837002
  2. Drink water is a healthy and good way to increase our brain capacity feeding it with oxygen and transporting nutrients to parts of our body. At times when I was too focused in completing my tasks, I forgot to drink water then I felt lethargic, not able to focus and leading to headache. Water does not only hydrate us, it contributes to many health benefits. (all right, take a break and have some water, now…)
  3. Aromatherapy has psychological and physiological effects on us. With the right essential oil (I believe it depends on individual, the one they use in the office… is not to my liking, I prefer lemon or something zesty), it will help to boost our mood, helps with stress reduction, calming us and assist in triggering sense of focus. There are many options that are available or the easiest is to rub the essential on your palm and enjoy the scent.
  4. Snack healthily with nuts, dried fruits, fruit or vegetable slices, peanut butter, etc… here is one of a good resources: http://www.eatingwell.com/article/15314/10-ways-to-snack-smarter/
  5. Power nap... in fact, I just woke up from my power nap and writing this blog, haha. There are a lot of “different schools” of thoughts on this topic… according to science, generally the range of duration will be from 10 to 30 minutes. As long as you do not go into “sleep inertia”, when that happened, you will wake up feeling worse. How long for you? Please experiment.
  6. Stretching or quick exercise i.e. jumping jacks, walking around, planks… there are so many exercise we can do. Find the one that you are able to do with the space constraint and with the resources that you have (chair or table).
    This site is interesting:  https://draxe.com/exercise-to-do-at-your-desk/
  7. Have short breaks in between tasks; pause, look around (focus exercise), meditate, mindfulness (awareness), puzzles, read articles, talk and socialize, breathing exercise, doodling… make coffee or tea and enjoy sipping. Take a break, have a Kit Kat (not that I am getting any sponsorship from them :-p )
  8. Most important of all, should we want to stay energize, focus, refresh and healthy… have enough rest and sleep. How many hours? Different people will be different. You will need to experiment and take note of whether your sleep is a good light or deep sleep. For me, I will need at least 7 hours of sleep to be performing my best.

 

“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” – Jim Rohn

 

“Your habits, your future!”

 

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Providing the fish versus teaching you how to fish

 

As I was going through some of my old short articles and collection of quotes (that motivates and provides me the wisdom), I came across this ancient Chinese quotes:

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

A lot of people (including my old self) want to be given the fish (if possible for FREE! anything that is free will be good… at least it’s provided for…)

Then the thought of this question came to me… “Why settled for limited fish?”

Isn’t it better to learn how to fish, therefore you can fish (catch) as much as you want, right?

We all have the choice to learn from successful people who have experienced in fishing and now turned professional fishermen/women. In fact, we should be paying them to learn from them.

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Another quotes that I find relevant… “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear…”

What if, one day, a professional fisherman/woman offers to teach you how to fish and the secrets of catching fish abundantly… will you accept him/her as your coach/mentor?

Or will you give excuses that you are too busy, (no time), not interested, not in a hurry or whatever the excuses may be!!

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Of course I am not talking about the real fishing… it’s a metaphor that I am using to represent opportunities.

“Life is short, once the opportunity is gone, it’s gone…” 

Life is too short and it is better for one to live life to the fullest and not hoping that life will be better (sitting and waiting for things to happen…)

When we reach a certain point in life and look back… will we say to ourselves… “WOW! I’M GLAD I DID…” or “OH DEAR! HOW I WISH I HAD!”

“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.” ~ Og Mandino

If we have not given our best, we have not lived!

There are many ways to learn “fishing”, please find some of the ways that I believe will work if you put some heart into it…

  1. Look for a coach/mentor and engage him/her to UNLEASH the potential in us.
  2. Find and make the time to read, we can start with 5 minutes and gradually increase it to more.
  3. Attend training, workshops, seminar, conferences, networking events; get to know people and talk to them. A lot can be learned when our mind is open.
  4. Have an inner circle of great friends (from different industries) having the same values. Napoleon Hill called it “Mastermind Group”. To find out more, you can visit Jack Canfield’s site: http://jackcanfield.com/blog/mastermind-group/ 
  5. Be curious and have the hunger to learn… we can always do our own research via the internet, magazines, audiobooks, e-books and many more resources around us. We just have to make time to invest in this activity.

I strongly believe that, the more we do (and learn), the better we get.

My own definition of a LEADER is a combination of two words, LEARNER and READER.

The more we LEARN, the more we EARN (knowledge and skills).

Thank you for investing your time in reading. Please do share with me if you have some learning points and tips.

 

“Your habits, your future!”

 

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Making decisions…

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“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”  – Tony Robbins

A lot of us, myself included… tend to wait for the right moment to make decision – the right decision… is there really a right decision?

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What I have learnt from some of the audio books, we have to just make the decision and manage the decision we have made… fine-tuning it along the way – to make it a good and sound decision (at the time we made that decision with the resources that we have). We have to learn to be resourceful and have the grit (persistence) to pursue what we have decided upon (as long as we can).

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

At times we have the fear to make the wrong decision… well, if we do not make that decision, will you be able to know whether you are able to achieve it?

Some recommendations I have in mind…

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  1. Use the Benjamin Franklin method (a good article to read: https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-to-make-a-decision-like-ben-franklin/)
  2. Discuss with the people that you trust (to bounce off some ideas) and you will have to make the decision, anyhow.
  3. This is the time when you know, having a mentor and / or a coach helps (let me know if you need any help, i will be more than willing – if both our schedules permit).
  4. Do your research, write down the possible outcomes (depending on the goal that you have set), “sleep on it” for a few days and refer to item #2 or #3.
  5. Just Do It… NOW! (If you do not, will you regret it… at a later stage in life?)

In my humble opinion, it is not how you start, it is the journey of learning, to keep going and persist until you finish what you have started.

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So what… if you made a mistake? Evaluate the experience and move on…

I am sure there are a lot of good reading materials you can get pertaining to making decisions. You can read as much as you can or want… ultimately, you have to make that decision to either start or not.

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Opportunity does not come to you… You have to SEIZE IT!

Let me share some quotes that I like on making decisions:

  1. “A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.” – Grantland Rice
  2. “When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” – Roy E. Disney
  3. “I made decisions that I regret, and I took them as learning experiences… I’m human, not perfect, like anybody else.” – Queen Latifah
  4. “Sometimes it’s the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.” – Keri Russell
  5. “Our daily decisions and habits have a huge impact upon both our levels of happiness and success.” – Shawn Achor

I look forward to your success and please share your story / journey with me.

 

“Change your habits, change your world!”

“Your habits, your future!”

 

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The TOP 5 lessons learnt from my past jobs

I have been thinking of what to write… something that can benefit people who are reading this article. There are a lot of things that can be written and suddenly I thought of this question…

“What can my past jobs (the work, projects, people) teach me to be a better version of me today?”

To some of you who has changed a lot of jobs, please do not feel bad, times have changed and we do our best to be in that job as long as we can to serve the best we can.

I strongly believe that the outcome is a win-win when we put our best effort in the job that we are doing. The company gets the results and we get to learn from the experience, preparing ourselves for something BIGGER that is coming our way.

“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” ~ Pele

Please take note that the sharing is for learning purposes, contact me should you want the long version of the story as I will be putting the learning in bullet points…

Keep going and one day, you will achieve what you want to achieve.

Well here goes…

 

 

1st Job: Part-time college lab assistant which later got promoted / changed to be an IT Trainer (by accident)

  • Lesson 1: Never underestimate yourself, you can do GREAT things!
  • Lesson 2: Have the courage to speak up.
  • Lesson 3: As a people manager, fight for your people.
  • Lesson 4: Never ever condemn other people’s religion.
  • Lesson 5: Work hard before working smart!

2nd Job: Computer Instructor with a USA Franchise Computer Learning company (in Kuala Lumpur)

  • Lesson 1: Tell them what you are going to teach them, teach them and tell them what you have taught them.
  • Lesson 2: Practice integrity at all times.
  • Lesson 3: Communication skills are very important, no matter who you are.
  • Lesson 4: Never exploit people who are working with / for you.
  • Lesson 5: When you start to get greedy, you start to fall!

3rd Job: IT Officer and HR Training Executive in a Japanese Steel company

  • Lesson 1: Always have a backup plan.
  • Lesson 2: Never rush into making important decision.
  • Lesson 3: Listen to people who are reporting to you, all ideas are good ideas.
  • Lesson 4: Never get comfortable, always be improving yourself.
  • Lesson 5: Understand the culture of the company.

4th Job: College IT Training Sales and Trainer

  • Lesson 1: Change is good; if it improves the situation.
  • Lesson 2: The more you do, the better you get (provided if you fine-tune).
  • Lesson 3: You need a team to work on bigger things.
  • Lesson 4: Never fear of taking risks (manage the risks).
  • Lesson 5: Motivate your people, never wait until they are leaving.

5th Job: IT Head of Department with a Taiwanese forwarding MNC

  • Lesson 1: Respect needs to be mutual and earned NOT forced!
  • Lesson 2: Creative thinking helps to solve a lot of challenges.
  • Lesson 3: Never play favouritism!
  • Lesson 4: Office politics can cause problems.
  • Lesson 5: There are a lot of ways to solve issues.

6th Job: Sales Executive with the same Taiwanese forwarding MNC

  • Lesson 1: “The sky is NOT the limit…”
  • Lesson 2: Building relationship works!
  • Lesson 3: Be consistent (and congruent).
  • Lesson 4: Sales is a good platform to learn how to run a business.
  • Lesson 5: Customers need to be treated right! (they may not be always right)

7th Job: Branch Manager with a Systems Integrator

  • Lesson 1: there are no forever friends nor enemies in business.
  • Lesson 2: People are willing to do anything to earn big bucks!
  • Lesson 3: Coaching helps to build people.
  • Lesson 4: Follow up! Follow up! Follow up!
  • Lesson 5: Transparency is one of the success factors in business.

8th Job: Sales and Operations working partner

  • Lesson 1: Whoever that drinks with you, may not be your friend.
  • Lesson 2: One of the business focus and branding can be on premium markets!
  • Lesson 3: You always have a choice and the choice made you.
  • Lesson 4: Be truthful and be your true self.
  • Lesson 5: It is never too late to turn over a new leaf, to be a better person.

9th Job: Team manager for a USA computer MNC

  • Lesson 1: Motivate your people; recognition and rewards.
  • Lesson 2: Find out the root cause and NOT fire fight!
  • Lesson 3: You need to give some time to see improvement.
  • Lesson 4: Complete and NOT compete!
  • Lesson 5: 1×1 coaching and constant communication with people, helps!

10th Job: Sales Trainer with the same USA computer MNC

  • Lesson 1: Make learning FUN!
  • Lesson 2: Never give empty promises.
  • Lesson 3: Give recognition when it is due.
  • Lesson 4: Listen to both sides of the story.
  • Lesson 5: Dare to take risks!

There were a lot more lessons learnt from the past experience… I am just sharing 5 learning points for each job experience. Enjoy reading and select those relevant to you to apply.

If you need any help, please do not hesitate to contact me.

And if anyone of the above learning triggers you to change… for the better… WHY NOT?

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” ~ Colin Powell

“Change Your Habits, Change Your World!”

 

 

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8 Steps to Successful Change

One of the books that I enjoyed reading, a fable-based book and great learning as well.

The book titled “Our Iceberg is Melting – Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions” by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber. The book is available at Amazon.com…

The synopsis from Amazon:

Our Iceberg Is Melting is a simple story about doing well under the stress and uncertainty of rapid change. Based on the award-winning work of Harvard Business School’s John Kotter, it can help you and your colleagues thrive during tough times.

On an iceberg near the coast of Antarctica, group of beautiful emperor pen­guins live as they have for many years. Then one curious bird discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home—and almost no one listens to him.

The characters in the story—Fred, Alice, Louis, Buddy, the Professor, and NoNo—are like people you probably recognize in your own organization, including yourself. Their tale is one of resistance to change and heroic action, seemingly intractable obstacles and clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles. The penguins offer an inspiring model as we all struggle to adapt to new circumstances.

Our Iceberg Is Melting is based on John Kotter’s pioneer­ing research into the eight steps that can produce needed change in any sort of group. After finishing the story, you’ll have a powerful framework for influencing your own team, no matter how big or small.

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I believe different people will learn differently from the book. Depending on the different states we are in, at the time reading the book.

As for me, I have gathered good tips in practicing a successful change. In my own understanding (adapted from the book), the steps are shared as below:

Making it Possible

  • Identify a trigger to make it urgent and important; what needs to be changed immediately?
  • Setup a support team (inner circle); the power of group with the ability to lead, communicate, good branding, skills to analyse, decisive, proactive and focus on priorities.

Make a decision

  • Decide on the well formed outcome; with the right vision, goals, strategies and tactics. Journey to making a reality for yourself.

Massive Actions

  • Understand what is needed and the price to pay for embarking on the change project…
  • Overcome and remove the barriers stopping or slowing you down.
  • Go for low hanging fruits and get results as soon as possible in the short term.
  • Be aware of initial success and keep going (do not be distracted). Do it until you get the desired results…

Sustainability

  • Make it a habit culture… keep repeating the right action to produce the desired results (repeatedly).

Rest if you must… keep going and you will achieve the results that you want.

“Your habits, your future!”

 

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21 Personal Power Habits

Recently, I re-read a book by Brian Tracy, “Eat that Frog!” and it made a lot of sense. There are 21 topics that he covered in the book, I took some notes based on what I have learnt.

My humble opinion, if you are able to focus on one topic and take action for at least 30 days (it works better with an accountability partner). You will definitely see yourself change for the better.

There you go… the 21 Personal Power Habits (based on my understanding…). All the best in your action.

  1. Have a goal in writing for clarity. When you write down the goal, means you have put in some thoughts for the goal.
  2. Invest some time in advance planning. As the saying goes, “a stitch in time, saves nine…” though we have to expect the unexpected, we are preparing ourselves for any circumstances.
  3. Using the Pareto principle (80/20) to our advantage. Focusing our time and strength on the main 20% of activities to give us 80% of results.
  4. Weighing the critical-ness of the outcomes will point us to setting priorities (urgent versus important).
  5. Apply a system to assign the importance or sequence of tasks using method of preference (ABCDE, High-Medium-Low. Numbering, etc.)
  6. Effort versus results. Which area do you need to get results first? Focus on that first or get someone to help you to complete that area first before moving on to the next one.
  7. Time may be limited to finish all the activities… where you focus your energy, you get the results. Priorities on the most important ones.
  8. 6P’s on preparation: proper prior preparation prevents poor performance.
  9. Invest time in doing research to find out more before starting. What resources are needed? How can you be more resourceful?
  10. Utilise your strengths and talents. Things will be easier when you use your strengths to do it. More will be achieved with higher motivation as when focus on strengths, the less challenging the tasks will be.
  11. Determine the barriers and constraints. When the goal you set is audacious, you will bump into bottlenecks that slow you down. Once identified, get help or overcome them.
  12. Take one step at a time. Chunk the big tasks into smaller ones and keep going. Accomplish the most complicated ones, inch by inch , everything’s a cinch.
  13. Set a deadline for yourself. Some healthy pressure will be good to get things done. Remember the day before you went for your holiday… you get more things done that day…
  14. When are you the most productive? Leverage on that positive flow to achieve better results and getting more demanding tasks done.
  15. Being positive in the journey to get to where you want to be, makes life sweeter… be a fixer and focus on the solutions.
  16. Certain tasks is worth procrastinating. Focus on the high priority, important and adding more value to you.
  17. When you are fresh and full of positive energy, tackle the difficult tasks first.
  18. Divide and conquer. Segregate the tasks into manageable segments then deal with one at a time.
  19. Block your time (calendar) and make time to action with concentration.
  20. Be fast and accurate. Having the sense of urgency with quality execution is a good personal brand to have.
  21. Focus to finish. When you start and stop a task, it will consume more time to complete.

 

To learn more from the Guru, please visit this link:

https://www.briantracy.com/blog/category/personal-success/

 

Let me know how it goes. Enjoy the journey!

 

“Change your habits, change your world!”

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12 Weekend Habits of Highly Successful People

Have you ever thought of what successful (depends on what success means to you, in this case, people who are busy and had made a name for themselves in the business world) or we can identify them as effective leaders (people who get results)  do during the weekends?

I have come across these twelve leaders and what they do during weekends;

1. Robert Iger (CEO of Disney) – get up early (and never experience “Monday Blues”…)

2. Benjamin Franklin (Founding Father of the United States) – have a plan (fail to plan and we plan to fail)

3. Timothy Ferriss (Author; one of his books, “The 4-Hour Work Week”) –  do not multitask (focus to get better results)

4. Anna Wintour, OBE (Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief) – stay active (and gain more energy to achieve more)

5. Steve Jobs (Apple) – prioritize what’s important (clarity on what gets you closer to your goal and breakthrough)

6. Warren Buffett (CEO of Berkshire Hathaway) – make time for hobbies (life has more meaning in doing what you love)

7. Oprah Winfrey (Media Proprietor) – practice stillness (meditation for 20 minutes a day will improve your mind)

8. Randi Zuckerberg (Businesswoman) – forget FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and embrace JOMO (Joy of Missing Out) 

9. Bill Gates (Microsoft) – take time to reflect (this is how humans improve themselves and learn more)

10. Richard Branson (Business magnate) – give back (release oxytocin and feel happier)

11. Jack Dorsey (CEO of Twitter Inc.) – get ready for the rest of the week (plan ahead and expect the unexpected)

12. Jay-Z (Rapper) – keep up the momentum (once you get going, it’s going to be tough to stop… keep moving forward)

There you go… some great tips and sharing on what we can do with our weekends. Enjoy your weekend.

“Change Your HABITS, Change Your World…”

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Top 7 Habits of High Achievers

Why are some leaders effective and are able to achieve more than others? Have we ever thought of that question before?

What made these high achieving leaders successful? As my mentor and I are working on our new book, I have the opportunity to do some research on this topic.

Here are what I have discovered and of course there are a lot of other habits, let me focus on the critical few – top 7 – for your reading pleasure…

1. POSITIVE THINKING

“Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.”  – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

What do you gain by thinking negative? In my humble opinion, please save your mind energy and think positive – do it every day and one day, positive thinking becomes your habit.

A great day starts with positive thinking. Also shared by Zig Ziglar, positive thinking is like taking a bath… you need it every day NOT once in a while.

2. HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

“The greatest wealth is health.”  – Virgil

As humans, we have been given the power to choose what we do with our mind, body and spirit. How do you take care of your health?

To exercise or NOT? Sleep? Diet? Choices… Choices… the choice that we make, we have to learn how to pay the price.

We do not have to start with a lot, just focus on starting… bit by bit, step by step… as long as you keep doing, you will see the results. Results will give you the motivation and change in attitude.

3. FOCUS

“So rather than trying to do too many things at once, switch over to a mindset of focusing on just one thing while you are working.” – Timo Kiander

My mentor once shared with me, “if you chase two monkeys at the same time, you ended up with no monkey!”

I trust that if we really want to excel and get results, we need to focus. Like what Robert Kiyosaki mentioned in one of his books, FOCUS means “Follow One Course Until Succeed…”

What are you focus on today? How are you prioritizing your activities?

All of us have 24 hours a day, what would happen when you start to focus?

4. LEARNING

“Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.” – Leonardo Da Vinci

How do you plan to learn for the rest of your life? It is my belief that from our cradle to the grave, we have a choice to learn and I will make the choice to learn as much as I can. There is a Chinese saying… “We learn as we grow with age…”

Learning is one of the ways to make ourselves smarter. What do want to learn today?

5. START YOUR DAY RIGHT

“Make each day your masterpiece.” – John Wooden

How would you start you day right? Let’s do a 30-day challenge to start your day with the right, “Intention, Gratitude and Appreciation…”

Intention – what are the 3 things you would like to achieve today?

Gratitude – what are you thankful for today?

Appreciation – who are you going to appreciate today and how?

I once read in a magazine article, if you start your day right, the whole day will be fantastic and fruitful.

6. REST and RELAX

“If you do what you love, it is the best way to relax.” – Christian Louboutin

What will happen if we keep working non-stop without rest and relaxation? We will definitely experience burn-out and time will be wasted for us to get back in shape to be productive.

Dale Carnegie said it right, “So, to prevent fatigue and worry, the first rule is: Rest often. Rest before you get tired.”

Find time to do activities that you love and enjoy. Imagine when you find the career and business that you truly love and enjoy doing (to learn and earn)… it would be a bliss.

How are you enjoying your down-time to rest and relax?

7. CONNECT with OTHERS

“If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people.” – Chinese Proverb

I have an author friend who encourages me to talk to strangers. In fact, I can learn a lot of things from strangers. The insight you can get from people is incredible when you listen closely to their stories.

It will also be good to constantly be in touch with our clients / customers / partners / colleagues…  get feedback and for them to feed-forward their expectations and requirements to us. By constant communication, it will help bond all of us.

How do you plan to connect with others? What questions will you ask? What information will you share?

I trust that, there are more habits that high achievers have and I am sharing this Top 7 Habits of High Achievers, so that we can benefit by perfect practicing them.

Have fun and the journey is the reward!

“Change Your Habits, Change Your World!”

“Your Habits, Your Future!”

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7 Habits of Selling

As I was preparing for my session next week, the question on “What are some of the good habits of selling?”

Went through my sales books, reflected on my sales experience, thought of what I had shared with my sales team, the things I had shared with my participants in workshops, seminars, coaching and mentoring sessions… resulted to the enclosed points.

1. Identify 

“It’s prospects that buy; not suspects.”

First important habit to keep the business alive. There will be no sale when we are not able to find prospects. The need to call, find and meet new prospects is a must to keep your business going. It may not be easy to make the initial call, even a very experienced sales professional may get the jitters calling a new prospect.

What is the purpose of you calling the prospect? I believe with the right intention; to help the prospect with a better solution, share great benefits with the prospect, ultimately we are providing good quality solution and service to them. With that in mind, I trust that the positive is definitely more than the negative. Have no fear, just do it… Now.

This is the start of a wonderful journey in selling. If you were to ask successful sales professionals, they will share with you all the rejections they have gotten to be where they are today. At times the prospect may not be ready yet for your solution, just go on to the next prospect. As long as you keep going, you will somehow be successful and what does not kill you, will only make you stronger.

2. Interrelationship

“People want to work with people they like and have an easy rapport with”

I remembered during my days in one of the multi-nationals when having workshops with the sales team… I presented this exercise of getting the team to complete this sentence, “People BUY from people they…” and the common answers will be

People BUY from people they LIKE, TRUST, KNOW, BELIEVE IN, HAVE CONFIDENCE IN, RESPECT…

Building rapport is the foundation in any solid relationships, it is the start to many more meetings, friendship and partnership.

What are you doing differently to get people to buy?

3. Investigate

“The quality of the outcome depends on the questions”

As a professional sales, it is our duty and responsible to help our customers to achieve their goals.

We need to ensure that the customers that we work with have good careers by partnering with us. The more successful they are, the better our circumstances will be.

And to achieve that, we need to prepare great questions to help our customers get better outcomes in their business. We ask great questions to find out their needs, issues, impact to their business when the issues are not resolved and important information to assist them in their breakthrough to success.

Prepare yourself with great questions to discover and validate your customers.

4. Ideas

“With the right answers, we can get better solutions”

Creativity (Ideas) is the product of asking great questions, when we have fantastic answers that leads to many ideas that can be transformed into better solutions.

Sales professionals help the customers to mitigate the risks (or risk-free as one of my participants shared) of the best solutions to help with their business.

When there is lack of ideas, solution will be tough to seek. Ask more great questions leading to ideas generation.

Innovation comes from ideas with action, hence we get new services and products as the outcome.

How are you being a catalyst to your customers to convert the ideas into solutions?

5. Investment

“The customers will get their interests when they invest in the right solutions with us”

It is our role as professional sales to help our customers to sow the right solutions in order for them to reap great results.

When they have invested in the right solutions with us, they achieve the results they want and in return, we achieve more. It will be a sense of pride when the customers become successful.

There is a need for us to be with the customers in all stages the moment they signed the contract. It is the beginning of a wonderful partnership, we need to assume responsibility and commit to be accountable for our customers.

We need to make them realise that when they invest their time and resource with us, it is the best investment that they have made. Their investment will get better with us throughout their business partnership journey with us.

6. Introduce

“The whole world will know about you when your customers are happy (or not)”

Today, with the power of social media, branding is very important and how we help our customers are a priority. We can be famous for being the best or the worst, all in the power of our customers’ hands.

I would prefer to be the best and in the good books of my customers. When they are happy, they will give referrals. Their other partners will know about us and potential of doing business with us is high and limitless.

Let us work towards in providing the best to our customers, in return, we become the best for them and their partners.

When our trust level with the customers is high and we are consistently helping them to achieve greatness, we can also ask them if there is anyone else that they would like us to help and be successful.

7. Improvement

“The enemy of a great life, is a good life…”

Even when we achieved a certain level of success, we need to continue improving ourselves. Never be complacent and take your customers for granted.

Constantly keep in touch with the customers, get good information, feedback and feed-forward from them.

I like what Malcolm Gladwell stated in his book, “Outliers” that to achieve mastery, we need to put in at least 10,000 hours of perfect practice.

In my humble opinion, even if we have achieve that level of mastery, we need to have the humility to perfect practice continuous and never-ending improvement.

“Change Your Habits, Change Your World!”

There is a LOT of potential in us… put in more ACTION to realise the potential.

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What is your daily routine?

How do you normally go through your day?

What do you start with?

What is your daily routine like?

Different people have different ways of running and starting their day. After doing some reading and learning from others on their daily routines, I would like to share some observations…

There is an ex-SEAL high ranking officer shared in his commencement speech with the university students, first thing to do in the morning is to make your bed right. Some of us will be wondering why, making our bed is important and what is the significance of making the bed?

According to the Navy officer, when we make our bed right, we start our day right. We have accomplished the first task of the day and by doing that, we feel productive and there is a sense of accomplishment. And we will be looking forward to completing more tasks for the day.

At times, our day may not be good and when we return home, when we see our made bed, at least one thing is done right. That, in a way is a source of motivation. That is what the Navy officer is sharing and I believe that starting your day right is important for our well-being.

I would like to share some ideas on starting the day… you can make a choice and make it your own personal project or experiment to make your 2018 and beyond better.

Set theme of the day

What is your theme for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and the rest of the days of the week? For example, Monday is to focus on completing administration work (management, operations, etc.), Tuesday for Sales, Marketing and growth of the company… the key is the power of focus. When there is a distraction, at least you know where to focus on that day.

Start and End with questions

Like Benjamin Franklin, he starts his day by asking the question, “What good shall I do this day?” and ended his day with the question, “What good have I done today?”

As for Marshall Goldsmith, he has his daily active questions;

Did I do my best to…

  • Set clear goals?

  • Make progress to achieve my goals?

  • Find meaning?

  • Build positive relationships?

  • Be fully engaged?

  • And many more…

The power of questions that can trigger deeper thinking and unleash the potential in you. And you will need to put them into action to get the results and get motivated.

Start with exercise

Some leaders start their day with exercise, moving the body to gain positive energy and get fresh morning air. It may not be for everyone, as some may only exercise middle of the day or in the evening. In my humble opinion, as long as you keep moving and be active, it should be all right.

There are a lot of goodness that comes out from an active lifestyle, just do it in moderation. Too much of a good thing may not be that good.

SAVERS Morning Routine

This interesting routine comes from Hal Elrod, author of “The Miracle Morning,” and they are as below;

S = Silence, A = Affirmations, V = Visualization, E = Exercise, R = Reading and S = Scribing.

The way we start our morning can make or break the rest of our day. The SAVERS acronym reminds us of six habits or rituals that can improve our morning routines.

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail

For those who prefer planning, it can be done in the morning or evening (for the next day). Planning can help us to focus on the things / tasks / activities to do for the day.

Some leaders focus on the top 3 most important things for the day, and they plan their day using calendar (or to-do list and there are a lot of apps that can be used for planning / scheduling).

Just sharing one of the best practices, some leaders will plan for own time and family time.

Blessed are those who are flexible…

Every day is a new day and for some, they do not have any fixed schedule nor routine. They are different every day, how interesting is that?

Different people have different styles, flexibility may stress out some people… and some really love the flexibility and spontaneity. “One man’s meat is another man’s poison…”

My recommendation is for you to do the different routines and experiment, then decide which one is the one suitable for you. You know yourself best.

All the very best in 2018 and beyond.

 

“Change your habits, change your world!”

#habitchange2dot0

#dionocl